Sake Ochazuke (porridge with broiled salmon)

At a glance, a bowl of porridge with a piece of no-dressing, no-marinade salmon sounds almost sad. As in, it's-Saturday-night-I-am-home-alone-slurping-instant-ramen sad. But in fact, this dish is full of rich and nice flavors and has quickly become a staple at my house.

The key is to get the right ingredients and not under- or over-cook the salmon. Once you assemble the porridge with a hint of green tea and that dashi stock umami with the fatty crispy salmon skin and slightly salty salmon flakes, the flavor combination just doesn't get better than that. Oh wait, it does, put some roasted seaweed on top. Now you've got the texture, the taste, and the warmth all from a single bowl of pure goodness.

Ingredients
4oz Salted Salmon Belly
1/2 sheet Roasted Seaweed ( like Yamamoto nori)
2 cups Cooked Rice (use Nishiki brand rice)
1 cup Green Tea (use Japanese green tea such as genmaicha for its nuttiness)
1 cup Dashi Stock
Canola Oil
Salt

Direction

• Rub the salmon with a generous amount of salt
• Cover and let it refrigerate overnight
• Remove the salmon and rinse under cold water to remove the salt
• Dry the salmon with paper towels or a kitchen towel
• Drizzle oil over salmon and place under a broiler in low setting
• Broil for 15 minutes until a nice crust has formed; if the skin is still not brown enough, you can turn the broiler to "high" for a couple of minutes and monitor closely to make sure the salmon doesn't burn
• Break apart the salmon into flakes and set aside
• Add rice to a bowl with salmon flakes and seaweed on top
• When you are ready to serve, mix the hot green tea with the stock. You can add as much liquid as you would like, as long as you remember to use it in the ratio of one part tea one part dashi stock.

Date Night at Chotto

Today was one of those days that we both were very blah at the end of the day and we felt that we needed something to cheer us up. We were supposed to go to Tsunami swimming practice tonight but we just did not have it in us to do it and we decided that, instead of going there and do a bad swim session, we would do an impromptu date night at Chotto - a new Japanese Izakaya restaurant in the Marina district.

We started our dinner with a carafe of hot Hakutsuru sake, Imo Age (garlic french fries with spicy miso aioli) and Tori Age (crispy chicken wings, shichimi buffalo sauce).


Bacon Mochi (applewood smoked bacon, mochi, nori) - Very interesting combination, I kind of liked it.


Tsukune (chicken meatball, eggyolk, homemade teriyaki) - I can eat multiple orders of this. Delicious!!!


Tontoro (pork cheek, sea salt, shichimi chili) - Yum yum...


Miso Tonkotsu (pork & chicken broth, miso, chashu) - I think they gave us the Karamiso Tonkotsu (the spicy miso ramen) since it had a nice spiciness to it.


After dinner, we decided to stop by at the La Folie Lounge for some night caps on the way home. Porgy got Dark and Stormy (Goslings dark rum, ginger beer, lime, canton ginger cognac) and I Rye Manhattan (Rittenhouse rye, carpano antica sweet vermouth, bitters).


So did I feel guilty for skipping swimming practice? Eh... kind of but not really. I think it's nice to be able to do this impromptu date nights to keep ourselves sane. We promised ourselves we would go to the practice on Wednesday and Thursday but we'll see how that goes.

Otsu Soba

A couple weeks ago, I made this cold buckwheat soba salad with lightly fried tofu and ginger dressing called Otsu Soba because Porgy and I were craving for something light, refreshing and delicious. I used these two sites, WeHeartFood and DinnerWithJulie for my recipe source and according to one of you they are based on Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks (thanks for letting me know of another wonderful site!) Otsu Soba is a perfect left-over food for us since you don't need to warm it up and you can just eat it cold out of the fridge.

It was my first time cooking with Soba so I was pretty excited about that and now I can't wait to cook another Soba dish... wonder what's next. Maybe Zaru Soba – cold soba noodles with tsuyu dipping sauce?


Ingredients:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

12 ounces dried soba noodles
12 ounces extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 small handful of cilantro sprigs
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup shredded toasted Nori

Directions:

• Drain and press the tofu for 30 minutes or so, pat it dry, and cut it into 1-inch rectangles.
  
• Make the dressing by combining the rice vinegar, soy sauce, cayenne, salt, grape seed oil, sesame oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, and ginger in a jar and shake vigorously until it's mixed well.
  
• Cook the soba in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water just until tender according to the package direction then drain and rinse well under cold running water.
• In a well-oiled saute pan, brown the tofu on all sides over medium high heat. It took me about 3-4 minutes of each side. Toss gently once and continue cooking for another minute or so until the tofu is firm, golden brown, and bouncy.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the soba, tofu, 1/4 cup cilantro, green onions, cucumber and about half of the dressing. Toss gently until well combined.
• Serve on individual serving bowls (or plates), garnish with more cilantro, toasted sesame seeds and shredded Nori. Add more dressing if needed.
  

Tokyo - Part 2

Finally I have some free time to catch up with my blog... a month later! I thought I would not be too busy after I got back from my vacation but I was wrong as both work and my new aquarium had been keeping me on my toes - who knows setting up an ADA aquarium would be that hard (and costly too).

Anyway, here is the second part of my blog entry on my trip to Tokyo. I was so excited to be in Tokyo because it is such a beautiful and lively city and of course because there were so many delicious food to try. Sometimes we had difficulties ordering food because most (smaller) restaurants don't have English menu and either of us speak Japanese AND that the Porgy is allergic to seafood. Fortunately, some of our friends do speak Japanese so when we ate with them, we did not have to worry about using an EpiPen on Porgy afterward.

Izakaya in Shinjuku Sanchome: Ground chicken satay and daikon fries, Chicken karaage, Fried chicken and cheese (katsu style), and Pan friend Japanese potatoes.


Cute street food vendors


Maisen, great restaurant specializing in Tonkatsu. It's located in an old bath-house. I had a Kurobuta pork tonkatsu.


Neyn, a yummy and super cute donut shop in Midtown Roppongi district.


All you can eat Shabu-shabu and Sukiyaki in Shibuya.
Lunch at Roppongi: Grilled fish for me and Oyako-don for Porgy.


Kanda Yabu Soba in Marunochi district: Duck Soba, Unagi Soba and Buckwheat Mochi


Toriyoshi, a Yakitori place near Harajuku.


Espresso martini, Manhattan and Grilled cheese sandwich at New York Bar (Park Hyatt Tokyo).


Fantastic ramen place underneath Shinjuku Station: Shoyu ramen and Gyoza.

Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo

Wow... what a busy few weeks it has been - mountainous work loads, dealing with the burglary on my storage area (lost my new All Clad pots and pans... bummer), setting up a new 50-gallon ADA aquarium and going to Tokyo with Porgy for a well-deserved vacation. Now I'm somewhat back to my routine again although I haven't been inspired to cook lately. Thankfully, Porgy stepped up and cooked for us in the past few days.

I'm blogging our Tokyo trip as a two-part series because we had so much good food there and of course the infamous Tsukiji Fish Market. We arrived at the market around 10 am so we didn't get the chance to check out the early morning auction. However, we were lucky enough to still see the bustling and feel the pulse of the market. It was fantastic in a way that is hard to describe. In addition to checking out the market, we also had a fresh delicious salty sushi donburi. Needless to say, I had a big smile on my face for the couple of hours that we spent there.

Clockwise from top left: Tsukiji market scene, the wooden cart they use to transport the fish, dissecting a whole tuna, selection of knives at one of the vendors.


Clockwise from top left: Wonderful and logical sense, variety of fish on display, front shot of the trucks that they use for transportation (I was smiling like that), octopus.


Whale meat kiosk (I didn't try one).


Various shots of fish and prawn. Look at the high quality of the products!


Cockles clam - i used to have steam cockles back at home in Indonesia. Yummy!


The restaurant that we went to for our sushi donburi breakfast


Clockwise from top left: amaebi (raw shrimp), tamago (egg), hotate (scallop), maguro (tuna), chopped tuna with scallions, ika (squid). Center: ikura (salmon roe), uni (sea urchin).

Muracci's Japanese Curry and Grill

One of my favorite lunch spot in San Francisco's Financial District is Muracci's Japanese Curry and Grill. I usually order Katsu Curry (pictured below) or the Katsu-Don. Since it's very popular, the best strategy is to call in your order first so you can go directly to the front of the line, pay and enjoy your meal.